Drinking up the history of Echo Park’s Short Stop Bar

Besides being popular with Dodger fans, the Short Stop bar in Echo Park is probably best known for its connection with the crooked cops involved in the Rampart scandal. But the bar’s past includes many other sordid as well as amusing stories that historian Rory Mitchell reviews in a new video, “The History of The Short Stop Bar.” The 1920s building that now houses the bar as well as the adjacent Sunset Boulevard apartment building had already been scene of killings, accidents and hold ups way before the Rampart scandal emerged. In the late 1920s, the bar was then occupied by a furrier and taxidermy shop, which made headlines a fur-loving, all-girl gang attempted to steal a coat from the shop. In 1983, a man who was attempting to hold up the bar was shot dead by an off-duty police office.

Despite changing ownership more than a decade ago, the Short Stop remains a symbol of the Rampart Scandal. The video repeats the words of former Rampart officers Rafael Perez:

You know, it hurts me to say it but there’s a lot of crooked stuff going on with the LAPD. You go to the Short Stop and you hear, you know … we talk about how things went down. How they really went down and how they were fixed up.

Yes, blarg, chill out! I expect it is named because of the proximity to the Dodgers as well. On the other hand, it was there long before the Dodgers were, so maybe not. You presume — and your presumption might be wrong.

Even the Eastsider knows about the rampart scandal, but all these new comers don’t believe there’s corruption. I used to go around this place at all cost, now I will be happy to go up in there…See you soon! Oh, I can’t wait to what kind of ignorant comments this article will stir up.

“Most of EP is covered by northeast” NO it’s Not. Where did you get that from? Moreover, Rampart (along with Metro) had notorious reputations for brutality back in the day and the scandals do continue thanks to those desperate to bury the history for the sheer spectacle of repeating the mistakes.

Btw, Northeast’s notoriety is nothing to sneeze at. Just because it hasn’t been directly implicated in a prominent scandal does not mean that scandal, corruption, and worse never happened. It’s just another scandal waiting to be uncovered once again.

I enjoyed the history but nearly turned it off for the amount of “snazzy” transitions. Unnecessary – take a page out of Ken Burns book! But the subject matter was great and I’d totally be into more of these.

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